How Pocono schools are sifting out unsavory hires

How do school districts ensure their employees are safe for students and others to be around?

ANDREW SCOTT

How do school districts ensure their employees are safe for students and others to be around?

Christopher Martinelli, a Pocono Mountain West High School social studies teacher, was charged last week with having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male student in 2011.

John Waibel, an East Stroudsburg North High School physical education teacher, was charged in February with trafficking cocaine.

Their cases raise the question of whether school districts can do anything more to effectively screen job applicants with a potential for breaking the law.

Meanwhile, some critics say screening procedures need tightening and that the education system observes a culture of secrecy that allows tarnished teachers to hopscotch from one district to the next.

School boards approve hiring policies that follow state law requirements on criminal background checks and child abuse clearance statements for job applicants, said Pennsylvania School Boards Association spokesman Steve Robinson.

By law, background checks "are only required at the time of initial hire by a school district, although districts may have their own policies requiring more frequent checks," said Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller.

Pocono Mountain School District requires and maintains a record of background checks for all staff, district spokeswoman Wendy Frable said. These include criminal arrest/conviction, child abuse clearance and FBI checks.

The district interviews candidates, requires letters of reference and calls and verifies references, Frable said. After hiring someone, the district has a mentoring program for new teachers while administrators conduct classroom observations and monitor and evaluate the performance of all teachers.

The district also provides professional development training to staff on such topics as sexual harassment, crisis prevention/intervention and mandatory reporting procedures for suspected child abuse of any kind, Frable said.

The Department of Education does not require background checks for certification, Eller said.

"However, all applicants for certification must have good moral character. If an applicant answers 'yes' to any of the 'good moral character' questions (criminal convictions, child abuse reports, prior discipline, etc.), the department requires them to submit an explanation and documentation before deciding whether or not to issue the certificate," he said. "This is done every time an educator applies for a certificate."

Drug testing would be something that would be governed by school district policy, he said.

Last year, 118 teaching certificates were revoked or surrendered, Eller said. The state Professional Standards and Practices Commission immediately suspended the certificates of 23 teachers charged with crimes.

"Background checks provide a false sense of security," said SESAME President Terri Miller.

"Some students who've been sexually victimized by teachers are too scared or ashamed to report their ordeals or aren't believed when they do," Miller said. "Or it can be a case where the school district simply wants to sweep it under the rug. As a result, you can have teachers applying for jobs who previously committed such crimes in other school districts, but were never punished.

"If you're interviewing a teacher applying for a new job who previously worked in multiple school districts for short periods of time, that's a warning sign that there might be something in their background that's caused them to be so mobile," she said.

SESAME for the past three years has been working with Pennsylvania State Sen. Anthony Williams on Senate Bill 46.

This bill, if passed, would prevent what's called "passing the trash," where teachers who've gotten away with crimes, misconduct or exploitation move from one school district to another, Miller said.

"School officials and administrators choose to avoid the unpleasantness of an investigation, the threat of litigation, the cost of prosecution and the embarrassment of public disclosure by simply allowing teachers and others to leave quietly," reads a statement on Williams' website promoting the bill. "Sometimes, the 'deal' includes an agreement not to speak ill of the offender when asked for a reference by another school or district to which the individual has applied for employment. There can be no more backroom deals to encourage these predators to go away quietly to prey on children in other schools.

"(Senate Bill 46) would add new protections for children to an applicant's employment review," the statement continues. "These measures would apply to certified and non-certified educators and other prospective employees who would have direct contact with children."

Prospective employers would be required to ask, and past or present employers would be required to disclose, the following:

Whether or not a current or former employee has been the subject of a sexual abuse or misconduct investigation. Whether or not the applicant has ever resigned from or left employment while allegations of such misconduct were pending. Whether or not an applicant has ever been disciplined, discharged, non-renewed or asked to resign. Whether or not the applicant has ever had a license, professional license or certificate suspended or revoked.

"Agreements that would have the effect of suppressing any such information would be prohibited," according to Williams' site. "To eliminate any reluctance on the part of past or present employers to disclose information about an employee due to fear of litigation, the bill provides immunity from civil liability for the disclosure of the information unless the information or records provided were known to be false."